Cheryl Johnston Audu Real Estate

You must visit this adorably idyllic cottage, located on 310 Phillips Dr. Trufant, MI with spectacular full frontal views of 160+ acre Rainbow Lake. It’s about 45 minutes from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Just enough time to leave the hustle and bustle of the city and reset with the rhythmic lull of gently lapping waves.

A charming, but somewhat unassuming exterior opens up spectacularly to a bright, pristine and spacious setting. Classic French doors and floor to ceiling windows reveal gorgeous lake views which are readily accessible from several multi-tiered decks. Main floor living includes the kitchen, bedrooms, bath and living room plus a full deck.

The lower level walk-out has a large rec room, expansive additional dining area (great for entertaining), tons of custom built storage and a cool retro full bath. All furnishings included right down to the silverware. Just bring your clothes and start enjoying the quiet section of this large all sports lake with excellent fishing as soon as possible! To arrange showing text: 616-821-5430 or call 616-791-0511.

Anyone who was in the real estate market in 2015 knows this already. 2015 was an incredible year to sell real estate! Not only did homeowners in West Michigan recover pretty much all the losses of the economic crisis, home prices and home equity enjoyed substantial gains!

From a low of $99,000 in the dark days where foreclosures and short sales climbed to almost two thirds of the listings advertised on the local MLS, today’s average home price of $162,000 plus is almost double the selling averages of the worst of the recession. (Data from the Grand Rapids Association of REALTORS)

Smart would be home sellers would do well to jump onto this fast moving band wagon in the early days of 2016. Traditionally, winter is a period of time when home sales dip. It’s also a period when your home will be in less competition. Why is this especially pertinent today? Read on…

1. Less Competition in the Most Competitive Market

2015 was a banner year for competition. Especially if you were trying to buy a home. Multiple Offer situations became so common place, that some REALTORS were taking classes to learn how to manage scenarios where up to ten potential buyers were vying for one home! Today, there are still more potential home buyers than homes to be sold. Inventory in the Multiple Listing Service for the Grand Rapids Association of REALTORS has hovered below 3.5 months for most of the past 18 months. This type of sustained low inventory is very unusual. Putting your home on the market early this spring puts you ahead of the spring rush.

2. Price to Compete

This may initially seem counter-intuitive. Why price low when so many people want to buy? Well, for a couple of good reasons. Number one is that people want to buy, BUT they’re not stupid! Today, there are many ways to research what your home should sell for online. While, they are not always accurate, potential buyers can use these online portals and get a professional Market Analysis from a local REALTOR to substantiate their instincts. Second, pricing high helps you to sell the other guys house. Buyers rarely look at just one home before they purchase. As they compare what you’re offering to what’s available elsewhere, if you’re over-priced, they’re not likely to purposely over-pay when better deals are around the corner. So, it’s best to be competitive in your pricing so you don’t miss the opportunity to be a part of the bidding process.

3. Consider an Auction

Auctions are emerging as a viable type of sale in the West Michigan marketplace. While in the past, they have mostly be constrained to the arena of short sale bids and HUD foreclosures, more home sellers are willing to explore this type of sale as an option. For one thing, it’s nice to know when your home will be sold – the auction date. You can also create a reserve bid which will ensure that your home will not be sold below a certain price. Also, auctions tend to generate purchasing activity.

4. Hold an Open House Sale

Instead of cleaning your home multiple times a week for assorted showings, you might want to consider a technique which combines the efficiency of an Open House and provide home buyers and your nosy neighbors one stop shopping to preview a home with a wider range of showing hours and the benefits of refreshments. There are many creative ways to put this type of an Open House together. It also provides an excellent way to drum up excitement for a potential bidding war when you will be available to consider all potential offers. Kind of like creating your own mini auction.

5. Get Rid of Half Your Stuff!

Hold a garage sale BEFORE you put your home on the market. While many people wait until they’ve sold their home to do this, it really is an intelligent option to consider prior to putting a home on the market. For starters, we Americans tend to have too much stuff! It’s harder for potential home buyers to figure out where there stuff may find a new home when so much of yours is still in the way. Clutter tends to make homes feel and look smaller which translates into lower offers. Getting rid of clutter and things that you don’t want to keep will make packing easier and give you an incentive to do some much needed cleaning.

We hope you’ve found lots of value in these tips. If you’d like to talk with one of our client specialists further about selling your home in January 2016, please contact us.

For the past few days, we’ve been hearing birds singing in the morning. They can’t be wrong about Spring can they? It must be around the corner even though these mountains of snow seem to be taking forever to melt! Another ritual of Spring for the real estate community is the prospect of building a new home. Over the past year as inventory levels for existing housing has remained consistently low, more people are looking into the possibility of designing and building their own home.

Today, Cheryl Johnston- Audu Real Estate New Home Specialist and I had the pleasure of meeting with Rich Kogelschatz, the Owner and Principle Builder of Heartland Builders LLC. Heartland Builders was established in the mid 1980’s and has specialized in some unique ways. One of which is Universal Design, which acknowledges that for many people some form of physical limitation will touch our lives through someone we know or in a personal way. As we mature, the prospect of accessibility and barrier free living are conversations which may become necessary for a variety of reasons. Heartland Builders believes that our homes should age as gracefully as we do and implements this thought into the design and building process.

According to Rich, ‘thoughtful people’ want to build with confidence. We loved the unique APP designed to manage the building and communication process from start to finish. Unexpected surprises are minimized when you can ‘tap’ into your building process for a seamless update on what is going on. Heartland Builders also has a very detailed process map which highlights the entire construction process including client/contractor meetings and inspections from start to Closing.

One of the most daunting aspects of building a brand new home from scratch is figuring out what product selections look best and fit within your budget. Heartland Builders provides interior design services and computerized modeling to help you select your product and even see how changes to the architectural design will look before you make a final decision.

We both learned a lot from talking to Rich and were impressed with the attention to detail and the processes Heartland Builders has put into place to create a great client experience!